Coat season arrives in shops about four months before it arrives outside, which is both the problem and the opportunity. The range is at its fullest right now and will be picked over by November. But you are trying things on in a heated building, in September, wearing one layer, and every coat feels generous.
The fix is to shop with February in mind and to check four things that a warm September fitting room will not tell you.
Take a jumper with you
Not a cardigan. The thickest jumper you actually wear, in a bag, and put it on in the fitting room. Everything below is checked over that jumper or it has not been checked.
This one habit eliminates most winter coat regret, and it is the reason the coat bought in a sale in January so often fits better than the coat bought at full price in the autumn — by January you are dressed for the weather when you try it.
One: the sleeve at the top, not the length
Length is fixable and the top of the sleeve is not. Standing normally, reach forward as though taking something off a high shelf, then cross your arms. If the coat binds across the back or the sleeve head digs in, it will do that every time you carry a bag, hold a rail or push a door, and a jumper underneath makes it worse.
A coat that is snug at the waist and free at the armhole is comfortable. The reverse is not, whatever the mirror says.
Two: the back width across the shoulder blades
Stand square, put both arms straight out in front of you and hold them there. A coat with enough back width lets you do it. A coat without it pulls the front edges apart and lifts the hem at the back, which is what is happening when a coat rides up over a bag strap all winter.
Coats are frequently graded generously through the body and hardly at all across the back, so this is worth checking even on a size that is otherwise roomy.
Three: whether it fastens sitting down
Do it in the fitting room. Sit on the bench, buttoned, and cross one leg. Wool has almost no give and a coat that strains across the hips when seated will be worn open from December onwards, which defeats the point of buying a coat.
If it fastens standing but not sitting, consider the next size and have the side seams brought in through the body. That is a cheap alteration and it produces a coat that closes in both positions.
Four: the length against what you wear underneath
A coat that ends within a couple of centimetres of a skirt or dress hem looks accidental. Either clearly shorter, clearly longer, or long enough to cover it entirely. Check against the thing you will most often be wearing, not against the jeans you happen to have on.
unknown nodeWhat the cloth is telling you
Read the composition label. Wool content above about sixty per cent is the practical threshold for warmth and for keeping its shape; below that you are mostly buying a wool-coloured polyester that will pill at the bag strap and the cuff within a season. Recycled wool blends behave like the blend, not like the wool.
Rub the cloth hard between finger and thumb for a few seconds. If tiny fibres start lifting immediately, that is what it will do under an arm all winter.
The pockets, since nobody checks them
Put your phone in one. Put your hands in both, at the depth you would actually stand with them there. Welt pockets positioned for a mannequin sit uselessly high on most people, and a coat you cannot put your hands into is a coat you will resent by January.
One thing to ignore
The belt. Almost every wrap coat is sold with a thin self-fabric belt that is too short, too flimsy and knots into a lump. It is not a reason to reject a coat, because a wider belt in leather or a heavy webbing costs very little and is the easiest upgrade in outerwear. Buy the coat, bin the belt.